to last. that's built to last. >> nicole says she doesn't mind hearing the same speech again and again. >> when you know the speech so well in and out, it makes it that much easier to pinpoint when there's something new. it's almost like your ears perk up. >> the whole pack perks up, what was that? >> you see all of us furiously typing or tweeting. >> sometimes campaigns play with reporters, use us for their purposes. get a joy in fooling the media? >> yes, but more importantly in a campaign you want to have your own narrative at your own time. >> my running mate, dick cheney. >> before bush made this announcement, rove wanted to mislead the media. >> we had a guy on the campaign who was a leaker. >> how do you know he was a leaker? >> well, because he was a leaker. -- said, what's going on with the vice presidency? i said, look, big secret, don't tell anybody, but bush has decided to go with jack danforth of missouri. >> the media ran with the false

story. >> felt sort of bad, but i wasn't lying to the media, i was just giving misdirection to the guy who leaked. >> lying to the guy? >> well, yeah. it helps tell a story. when you want to have the story told by an evening anchor or the story told by the candidate who expresses in front of the cameras with as few filters as possible why he made this choice. >> four years later the "new york post" said john kerry had picked richard gephardt to be his running mate. this was of course a mistake. kerry had picked john edwards. john edwards turned out to be another kind of mistake, but that's another story. what the media reported even fooled gephardt's campaign manager. >> i called up dick gephardt, and i said, dick, i know you can't talk about this. he said, it never happened. i said, dick, i understand you have to deny it to me and everybody else. he said, steve, it didn't happen. >> why wouldn't you believe him when he said so-so emphatically, there was no meeting? >> you absolutely must keep the

conversation going on with the nominee and -- >> lying is okay in politics, running for office? >> lying is not okay unless you're asked an inappropriate question. >> politicians have always lied. >> i'm not a crook. >> i did not have sexual relations with that woman. >> the media used to give candidates privacy. even keep their secrets. they rarely pictured fdr in his wheelchair. they kept jfk's sexual activities secret. but now everything's game. that's a good thing. even though we reporters are obnoxious. >> the next time i prefer you let me finish my statement before you ask that question. >> next, you ready for presidential debates? we'll show you secrets behind the debates.

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>> for months mitt romney and president obama have attacked each other, talked past each

other, but three times this fall they face each other. debates can make a big difference. >> you'll never have as many people watching your two candidates together in a presidential election as you have on debate night. >> the campaigns can't control the debate the way they control everything else. >> no matter what you do as a manager to get them ready, he's still got to step in the arena. it's just two of them. you don't know. >> it's three agencies of government when i get there that are gone. commerce, education, and the -- what's the third one there? let's see. >> one brain freeze can end your campaign. >> the -- umm. >> commerce? commerce. and let's see -- >> rick perry was a serious contender until this debate. >> oops. >> forgetting is bad, and looking bad is bad. in the very first tv debate, richard nixon refused to put on makeup. it hurt him. nixon later said -- >> more important than what you

say is how you look on television. >> so campaigns obsess over details. when ronald reagan debated walter mondale, rollins and beckel were the opposing campaign managers. >> do you remember how high the podiums would be? >> days. >> we had days negotiating. >> the color of the room. >> what difference would it make to the candidate what color the room was? >> because in certain conditions, certain colors work for certain candidates. >> because mondale was shorter than reagan -- >> we wanted more distance between the two podiums. we debated between 7 1/2 feet and 9 feet for a day and a half. >> the first debate came, and reagan struggled. >> 2/3 of the defense budget pays for pay and salary -- or pay and passengers. >> he looked tired and ragged. the general observation was they just spent too much time with a

70-year-old guy trying to beat every factoid into his brain. >> people said ronald reagan is too old for the office. >> you're already the oldest in history. >> in the next debate, reagan was ready for that. >> i will not make age an issue of this campaign. i'm not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience. >> he delivers the line, and there's an impish sense of humor that comes out. you see the curl in his lips, and he's making fun of himself, and he delivers a great line. mondale can't help himself. he's simultaneously laughing and at the same time knowing i've just been taken to the cleaners. >> i turned to the guy next to me, the deputy, and said my race is over. >> just from that? >> yeah. i walked away. >> most people only remember one thing about the 1998 vice presidential debate, what senator lloyd benson said when dan quayle compared his

experience to jfk's. >> senator, you're no jack kennedy. >> here's later in debate, al gore walked up to bush. >> al gore tries to come over and be the bully and get in his face. bush doesn't say anything. just looks at him, smiles, gives him the head wink, and goes on. >> i believe i can. >> that was it. it just -- you know, it just absolutely devastated gore. >> you watch him go. >> yeah. we all revert to our junior high mentality, you know, when our team scored. yeah, you know! >> most people don't know is that bush had been prepared. >> jud gregg, who had played the role of al gore in the debate prep, had seen him pull this trick. he said to bush, be prepared, he's going to come and get in your face. we all dismissed at the time, but sure enough it happened. >> which raises the question how do candidates prepared? these two debate coaches showed me. they prepped president bush for

debate. o'donnell later coached mitt romney and michele bachmann. they spent hours trying to replicate debate moments. >> you have the candidate stand in front of a podium like this as realistic as possible? >> yeah. you want a strong bearing, erect. look at colin powell. he commands the podium. it's like this. >> it's about making sure that you fill the stage more than your opponent does. >> the candidates practice debating stand-ins. for obama, john kerry's plays romney. rob portman plays obama. >> you never see videotape of this, not even pictures. >> no. there's a reason why. you don't want to show those vulnerable moments. >> we don't want to give away any component to our prep. >> in the 2000 campaign, one of mckinnon's secretaries gave prep video to the gore campaign. >> gore campaign went straight to the fbi. >> what happened to her? >> she went to prison for a

year. >> what's so secret? i pretended to be a candidate. limited government -- >> just limited government. what kind of limits are you talking about? can you be specific. >> yes, i can list cuts. >> would you cut defense? >> so you're soft on defense? >> i knew how i should answer the questions, but under pressure it's hard. i'm saying take it back to the clinton days. "instinct is to answer the questions that are asked, but consultants day don't. >> you're still answering my questions, but most of the time you want to be delivering your message. >> they say sarah palin was good at that. >> governor palin answered the questions in her debate on her terms. >> governor palin, is that so? >> that's not so, but because that's a quick answer i want to talk about my record on energy. >> she was able to pivot most of the questions on to ground that she was comfortable in handling the questions on. >> they kept grilling me. >> do you believe college is stupid?

>> i -- >> don't you think that saying college is stupid is an irresponsible remark to make? >> no. for some people college is stupid. >> you just gave him some tape. >> now they'll make a commercial of you saying college is stupid. >> he says college is stupid. >> college is stupid. >> stossel, bad for our kids! bad for america! >> knowing that one bad debate moment can wreck your campaign makes candidates very careful. when gerald ford debated jimmy carter there was a technical glitch. >> the broadcasters from philadelphia have temporarily lost the audio. >> instead of leaving the stage to take a break, neither candidate moved. >> we don't know what's happened. we're as much surprised by what's going on as you are. >> since one wasn't going to budge, the other wouldn't budge. >> they stood there like for a half hour? >> they were frozen.

>> the first president bush was criticized for looking at his watch too much during a debate. he looked at his watch. so what? >> it's a nonverbal clue that says i'm -- i want to get away from this situation as fast as possible. >> and that hurt him? >> he was widely viewed as losing that debate. it overran the message. >> al gore was criticized after this debate for sighing while george bush spoke. >> this is a major problem. social security -- >> he looked like a do yo dufus. >> he was kansas city gated. next debate, al gore went out of his way to be docile and agree with everything bush said. >> the governor and i agree. i agree with governor bush. i basically agree with dick cheney. >> embarrassing episodes like those are why candidates practice a lot. these discussions go on for hours? >> hours. for most candidates it's the

most hated part of the candidate. >> does a candidate ever get mad? >> all the time. it's painful. it's not fun. >> do candidates ever yell at you? >> yell, collapse, walk out. >> they all do it because practice builds confidence. the confident guy wins, not the guy who has the better answer? >> quite often, yes. confidence, not hi, i'm phil mickelson. i've been fortunate to win on golf's biggest stages. but when joint pain and stiffness from psoriatic arthritis hit, even the smallest things became difficult. i finally understood what serious joint pain is like. i talked to my rheumatologist and he prescribed enbrel. enbrel can help relieve pain, stiffness, and stop joint damage. because enbrel, etanercept, suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common.

don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if, whilen enbrel, you experice persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. [ phil ] get back to the things that matter most. ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. [ doctor ] enbrel, the number one biolog medicine prescribed by rheumatologists.

>> people that complain that political campaigns are too shallow, why don't they talk more about the important issues? well, there's a good reason. who's this? >> oh, my god. how could is not know this? >> who's this? >> i have no idea. i'm not dog very good, am i? >> yet there are all these get out the vote campaigns. >> vote! >> vote! >> please get out and vote. >> get out and vote! >> i don't want everyone to get out and vote because some people don't know much. i went to times square and showed people posters of important politicians. most people didn't know speaker of the house john boehner. >> who's this? >> i have no idea. >> many didn't know nancy pelosi. >> who's this? >> i don't know. >> oh, my god. >> well, this is awkward. >> that's the vice president of

something. >> let's taste the actual vice president. >> who's this? >> i don't know who that one is. >> it's the vice president. just can't remember his name. >> biden. >> no, no. >> many were better at celebrities. >> tom cruise. >> justin bieber. >> it's not that people are stupid, but most americans spend more time thinking about other things. >> the average amount of time that a person spends on presidential politics in the course of a campaign is probably about three hours. >> that may shock you political junkies who watch fox, but americans spend much more time thinking about food, money, sex. politics is way down the list. it's a reason they keep appeals simple, emotional. >> there's a bear in the woods. >> republicans run ads like this one to suggest democrats are soft on defense. >> isn't it smart to be as strong as the bear? >> we the republicans, we see the threat. we're going to take action to protect the nation from this. democrats, you can't trust them.

>> jonathan's research based on surveys of thousands of people concluded that most of us choose our political party less on fact and more on which politician seems to be like members of our clan. >> he says conservatives join with people who worry more about foreign threats. liberals are more likely to obsess about the purity of nature. >> may i mideast have more arsenic in my water, mommy? >> these sanctity purity ideas about the environment. >> more salmonella in my cheeseburger, please. >> lots of research shows the subconscious matters more than fact. >> the professor at princeton did a very illoom nateing study. he said pick who looks more confident. >> here's how most people rank them. >> he predicted the outcome of all those races based on which candidate looked more confident. not beautiful, but more

confident. 70% of the time the more confident-looking person won the election. >> candidates with more angular faces, as seen here, are seen as more competent. at the face becomes more baby-faced, people say that person looks less competent. >> people make decisions based on looks? >> looks. >> mitt romney and obama appear about equal. consultants even worry about the people who stand behind the candidate. at this obama rally, people were already seated behind the podium when a staffer, highlighted here, came on stage and got some white people to move out. >> if you look at a candidate for president, he's got a bunch of people behind him, half will be men, half will be women. >> and a certain number will be of a different race. in this case, the result is that the camera now will see some

minorities behind obama. >> there will be a percentage of blacks, hispanics, a percentage of asians. that's the way you do it. >> i thought it just worked out that way. >> you did? that's why you're sitting where you're sitting and i'm sitting where i'm sitting. you don't have a clue how this works. >> people have to be cynical about baby kissing. >> kids are a particular attraction. i like to use kids. i'm always worried they'll pick up a baby and drop it. >> how much superficialallity, i have a cold... i took dayquil, but i still have a runny nose. [ male announcer ] dayquil doesn't treat that. huh? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus rushes relief to all your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your runny nose. [ sighs ] thank you! [ male announcer ] you're welcome. that's the cold truth! you paid...wow. hmmm. let's see if walmart can help you find the same look for less. okay. see? walmart has all these leading eyewear brands and styles. rockstar! really? yeah. oh, wow!

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are you in good hands? >> politics is a nasty business with constant fighting. it's like a boxing match. >> and down he goes. >> so it's telling that this is what two of our consultants used to do. >> you both were serious boxers as kids. what weight? >> i was a heavyweight. >> and this helps in a campaign? >> teaches you how to take a beating. >> sure does. >> here's what rollins looked like when he was getting ready for a physical beating. consultants say this prepares you for political beatings. >> if you don't have a tough skin in this business, you might as well just forget about wanting to ever do it. you'll be in a psychiatric unit. >> you also need a passion for politics. >> you were a vocal supporter of richard nixon at age 9? >> age 9. >> what kind of political freak are you? this is not healthy. >> well, i've always been interested in politics. i was for nixon. i scored a bumper sticker, put it on the wire basket of my

bike, rode it up and down the street, hoping to generate support for nixon. this worked really well until the little catholic girl across the street, who was on fire for kennedy literally pulled me off my bicycle, put me down on the pavement, sat astride me and wailed the heck out of me, gave me a bloody nose. i've never liked losing a political fight since. >> his opponents often hate him. >> fear of karl rove politics will finally be over next year. >> angry stuff. beckle and rollins have fought each other for years, yet they came to the interview together. >> you guys spent a career trying to kill each other's careers, but you're friends. >> great friends. >> friends for 25 years. >> why? >> you appreciate what your counterpart has to go through every

>> john: yet he did and it happened again and again without bloodshed. >> in romney's world. workers get the shaft! >> john: amidst the ugliness of this year's campaign, all the shouting and fighting. it's good to remember our system has worked better than so many alternatives. we